Any advice on buying quality vinyl

@edgwear,

I was only saying that most of the early DGG and some later DG pressings play black quiet.

As far as the sonics, yes, I find that the some of the early DGG red stereo pressings have a very natural tonality, good soundstage and great transients- as good as the best DECCA ffss blue backs and Speaker Corner issues I have listened to. My Asian audiophile buyers seem to feel that way as well. That said, not all DECCA labels are high-quality, you know that.

I don’t like the RCA Dynagroove pressings myself. The later Dynaflex (floppies) are too thin for me as they seem to allow rumble to interfere with the reproduction. But the sonics on some are excellent.

The quote I shared was from an RCA history site I archived. If it is accurate, then I can only assume that RCA engineers were aware of a running noise problem.

My experience with early RCA Living Stereo records is different than yours. I do hear audible running noise on most. Even the sealed Indianapolis copies my curiosity has compelled me to open and sample. I can’t argue it- it’s just there on most I play. In general, I find early German pressings and later Japanese pressings to play black quiet. The vinyl on mint copies of these also looks different to my eyes- they look like a sheet of black glass. The early RCA vinyl looks brittle and is prone to be slightly cloudy looking.

My listening experience may differ from a lot of collectors and audiophiles. I only offer it. 

@voiceofvinyl,

I must be one lucky fellow then. You made me go and play a number of my early LSC's and the background is just silent. For the record, I have cleaned all my classical records in three steps: Vinylzyme Gold, Quality Service cleaning fluid (a Dutch product) and purified water for rinsing on a VPI 16.5. A tedious and time consuming process, but I've learned that this first step with the enzyme mixture is crucial in removing organic contamination that builds up over the years on those old records, especially if stored in damp surroundings. Perhaps this first step has been particularly beneficial to those RCA's.

I'm sure you know that during the 70's the pressing, mastering and (perhaps) recording technology improved considerably with labels like Decca and HMV. To some extend this also applies to DGG, especially some of the 70's recordings made in Boston with Ozawa come close to the Decca benchmark. As much as we all love the late 50's early 60's performances by Ansermet, Cluytens, Klemperer et al, but the technology of the day was limited.

In contrast RCA engineering and sonics took a big step back with Dynagroove and Dynaflex. The same trend can be observed with Mercury and Columbia. Might it be true that US record labels reacted differently to mass market forces than did their European counterparts? I dunno, but this Atlantic divide is curious to say the least.

BTW I'm just a collector and with classical records I've reached saturation point many years ago, so there's no agenda here.

Contact Mike Fremmer he knows this stuff every well.

Voiceofvinyl,agree with just about everything you say.The red shaded dog RCA living stereo's are the most frustrating to clean,it would be interesting to compare our cleaning results out on the track.Most of mine play quiet only after extensive 4 to 5 cleanings.They need to be reversed dredged cleaned.Some of mine were fairly quiet and got horrible after cleaning,this crud would clog the stylus with terrible noise.I had to work on one 5 times to get it manually cleaned and replayed but it turned into a different recording,much better depth and soundstage.I love my final product and compared to DGG and any reissues they are unlistenable.I find most of the Dynagrooves certainly not up to the black label earlier ones.Surprisingly one Camden does sound remarkably good out of my bunch.It amazes me just how much better almost any stereo RCA LP sounds with extensive multiple cleanings compared to what I thought they were only after one I did years ago.They went from ho hum to a new plain of performance,incredible for 60 year old vinyl.Great to read your extensive posts.